"If you will only see the waters in Coron Bay, it's not safe anymore to swim there for the locals and our tourists," DENR-Mimaropa Director Natividad Bernardino said.
This is due to rapidly increasing coliform presence in the waters of Coron Bay from 2011 to 2017 indicating fecal or human waste pollution coming from commercial establishments and informal settlers within the government prescribed easement zone and mangrove areas.
Tests conducted by the DENR's Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) show that six locations in the bay have high local coliform levels.
These are Tagumpay, Barangay 1, Barangay 2, Reclamation Area, Barangay 5, and Governor's Wharf.
In 2016, the highest coliform level was recorded in Barangay Tagumpay, registering 104,818 most probable number (MPN), which was extremely higher than the 1,000 MPN per 100 milliliters (ml) safe limits.
Though the test result in Tagumpay decreased in 2017 to 9,758 MPN, it's still high from the safe limits, Bernardino said.
In Barangay 5, a 2017 bay water test result showed a total coliform level of 25,69 MPN, the highest among five areas since the Governor's Wharf's level already registered 972 MPN from 2016's 52,267 MPN.
All six areas also registered high fecal coliform levels from 2011 to 2017 per water quality guidelines with Barangay 1 showing the highest at 2,958 MPN in 2017 from an excessive test result of 21,315 MPN in 2012.
"Coron's dilemma right now is that it has no centralized sewage treatment plant. El Nido appears better than Coron now because its water quality has improved after two years based on EMB tests," said Bernardino.
Bernardino said El Nido Mayor Nieves Rosendo has ordered all commercial establishments to remove sludge from their septic tanks by hiring private contractors to do it.
"This is what we had suggested as an immediate solution to the municipal government of Coron to bring down coliform levels in the bay. Order the establishments to dislodge their septic tanks," she added.
Bernardino said ultimately, the best solution is the removal of informal settlers that have set up homes in mangrove areas along the bay and the commercial establishments that have been uncontrollably discharging wastewater to Coron Bay.
"Remove immediately the 1,000 informal settlers along the bay in the three-meter easement zone, and relocate them. Then eventually, every structure that releases wastewater and feces," she stated.
Last week, the DENR's Task Force Coron started its investigation of business establishments that have breached the easement zone.
"We need to decongest Boron Bay and ensure compliance with environmental regulations," said Bernardino, appealing to the provincial government of Palawan and the local government of Coron to provide resettlement for the informal settlers who were previously identified as beneficiaries of the typhoon Yolanda relocation program. [Celeste Anna Formoso, PNA]
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